I guess this would be my first official carving. Not that impressive unless you learn that I carved it with a box cutter knife and some sandpaper.

Here's the next one I did. I used some poor quality wood carving knives. They dulled very quickly.

Here they are together.

I didn't stain or finish either of these. I figured I would get a few under my belt first. Thought I might try the die grinder on the next one, but I can only afford a couple of bits for it. Any advice on which two or three to buy for my first ones?

Mr. Finkdaddy those are beautiful! Perfectly symmetrical and so well done.
But I gotta disagree with conagtiki, (sorry Mr. Conga) but if you carved those at twenty feet they would surely walk out of your yard and into somebody else's. Of course your wallet would feel a little fatter.
Really well done.

Oh, on the bits for your die grinder, look for the Kutzall carbide wood burrs. They come in red, silver and blue. Coarse, medium and fine. The fine ones clog very quickly on pine. Best to stick with Coarse or Medium. They'll last forever, well o.k., not forever, but a really long time. Wear gloves. They bite!

On 2004-09-01 12:22, Mr. Dale wrote:Oh, on the bits for your die grinder, look for the Kutzall carbide wood burrs. They come in red, silver and blue. Coarse, medium and fine. The fine ones clog very quickly on pine. Best to stick with Coarse or Medium. They'll last forever, well o.k., not forever, but a really long time. Wear gloves. They bite!

Thanks Mr. Dale, I will try those out. Then maybe I can start some of those big ones for Congatiki.

Tiki Toa, thanks much. How are yours comming? Don't be shy, the stuff I saw looked good so far. I will finish my profile thingy for you tonight, I hope. Maybe tommorow.

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Cool Job FD. I like the style of both of them alot. Especially the second one.

The first one was easy, despite only being carved with a razor. The second one however, demanded a blood sacrifice. My first tiki bite!

I like them both,they look nice and smooth. I think it is good that you are starting small. starting small allows you to really focus on the detials and allows you to see how to do the cuts on a small sclae so when you move to a bigger chunk of wood you know what cuts to make.

Those are great, Finkdaddy. Before you go to buy tools, though, you might want to checkout the "Tools Carvers Use" post. Theres lots of carver techie type info in there and lots of great pictures of carver's tools to look at before you go shopping.

Without the quarter next to them, you'd think those were full scale tikis. I like the design and the smoothness of them. They look cool!
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FinkDaddy, Excellent first 2 carvings, Again I cant believe these are your first. Like ,How many other firsts recently?. Us old carvers wil finally be able to take a break. Bring 'em on...
Thanks for sharing, I know it takes a lot of guts.
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Thanks Benzart, Foamy, and all the others who commented. You've made my day.

All the newbie carvers who are posting decent pics lately, owe it all to you and the other artists here. I've stared at your carvings for endless hours trying to decide how to go about it. I wouldn't have even tried it, if you all hadn't been so open and helpful. Thanks again.

Tiki_Bong, I am so flattered that you would even ask! But wouldn't you rather wait until I make something a bit more substantial? If you really want one of them though, feel free to PM me. It would be my pleasure to see my kids play with the other tikis!